Random Acts of Architecture

Theresa May’s speech in response to the recent terrorist attacks in London have, once again, mentioned cracking down on cyberspace “to prevent terrorist and extremist planning” and starving “this ideology the safe space it needs to breed.” World leaders, including Australia’s prime minister Malcolm Turnbull supported her, saying US social media companies should assist by “providing access to encrypted communications.”

Cory Doctorow and others make valid points about how impractical and difficult these dictates are to implement. Politicians mistakenly assume that weakened encryption or backdoors would only be available to authorized law enforcement and underestimate how interdependent the global software industry is.

However, presenting this as a binary argument is a “sucker’s choice”. Law enforcement is likely concerned because it cannot access potential evidence they have a legal right to see. While same laws arguably impinge personal freedoms, is it technology’s or technologists’ role to police governments?

Meanwhile, modern cryptography protecting data cannot also allow law enforcement access without weakening it. Consequently, technologists lambast politicians as ignorant and motivated by populism, not unreasonable considering Brexit and similar recent political events.

As technologists, we know what technology can and, more relevantly, cannot do. While it defines short term options, our current technology does not limit options in the long term. The technology industry needs to use the intelligence and inventiveness it prides itself on to solve both problems.

I do not know what forms these solutions will take. However, I look to technologies like homomorphic encryption or YouTube’s automated ability to scan it’s nearly uncountable number of videos for copyright infringements. There is certainly challenge, profit and prestige to be found.

The threat of criminal or terrorist action is not new. Mobile phones, social media and other phenomena of the digital age grant them the same protections as everyone else. Dismissing solutions from the ignorant does not mean the underlying problems go away. If the technology industry does not solve them, politicians may soon do it for them and, as Cory Doctorow and others point out, this will be the real tragedy.

Image credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/number10gov/32793567693